Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Long Ride Home

After I left work on Monday, I metro'ed over to Mike's to help him get ready for the barbeque. People started arriving around 6:30 or 7 and a good time was had by all. The bulk of the party left around 11, I think. Mike's friend, Atul (sp?), stayed and the three of us played a game of Scrabble.

Normally, I'm not a very competitive person. However, when the Scrabble board comes out, I turn into a vicious wordmonster. After a brilliantly played word ("jolted," with the j on a triple letter square), Mike recalls that I said something along the lines of "and I surge into the lead."

It was at that point in the game where I started drawing nothing but vowels. VOWELS! GAH!

How many words can one make from A, I, A, U, A, I, U? They refused to accept "AAAII", meaning "the screaming sound one makes when he has all vowels in Scrabble" as an actual word. The bastards!

Needless to say, I did not win the Scrabble match. I helped Mike come in a respectable second though (5 pts behind Atul).

Atul left. Mike decided the entire house had to be cleaned right then. I helped. We collapsed into bed around 2.

We got up around 12/12:30 [and out of bed around 1:30 *rowr*]. Mike made a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and banana pancakes. One of his new roommates joined us. Then, we walked down to Gallery Place/Chinatown to see The Devil Wears Prada, which was good bit of fun. Meryl Streep was fantastic. So many great lines.

Afterwards, we met Tomoko and Robert for margaritas (yum) and watched the fireworks from 19th Street (near Dupont Circle). We sat in the Circle for a while, enjoying the night air. Robert left. We started walking back to Mike's, but managed to catch a bus. I picked up my stuff and Mike walked me to the metro station.

After waiting a few minutes, a crowded train approached. The doors opened. I got on. The doors closed. The train sat there. And sat there. And sat there. The doors reopened and the conductor said the most dreaded words ever: "This train is out of service." GAH!

Everyone exited the train and milled about the platform for a few minutes. A train approached from the other direction. I hopped on and rode to Gallery Place, where I transferred to the Red Line.

I don't know what was up with the red line train I was on, but at every station, the doors would stay open for a long time, maybe 3 times the normal length. I wondered if I would ever make it home.

As luck would have it, when the train finally arrived at Silver Spring, there were no buses. So, I ended up walking home. I got in just before midnight.

I'm a little tired this morning.

My plans for the day include: laundry, shopping at Target with Christal, and -most importantly- firming up the details for my (unbelievably) first trip ever to New York City! More on this later ...

Lots of buses in Brisbane run in underground bus lanes to avoid congestion. But for some reason most of the stair wells leading down to the transit centre are closed for maintenance.

The buses are still running as usual, but you have to go through a shopping centre to reach the transit centre. Most commuters don't seem to have realised this, and hence the buses are really empty. Yey for empty buses!